The TRA Launches a Set of Information Security Projects for 2017

05/04/2017

The Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authorities (TRA) has announced a series of information security projects to be implemented this year by various working groups concerned in this field. This announcement has been made during the recent workshop hosted by TRA and attended by several local and federal government entities. These working groups cover different segments: children, parents and students, while one of them is concerned with raising awareness on how to apply laws related to information security.

This workshop is one of UAE Information Security Awareness Committee’s activities, which is the result of the agreement signed between the TRA, represented by aeCERT, and EBDAA, a leading Cyber Security Consultancy Company in the region, to establish an information security committee to spread this culture among the UAE community.

The list of tasks of the children working-group includes several activities, such as the translation of the cyber security instructions into Arabic, which makes the UAE the first country to provide such instructions in Arabic. These instructions include all resources and advices that interest the family in all matters related to child protection. The Arabic content will be distributed free of charge to all Arab countries.

The parents working-group is responsible for developing a set of tools to measure the current level of awareness of many entities. The role of these tools will be identifying the gaps in public awareness on information security. The aim of this group is to develop a standard vision and approach on implementing raising awareness activities on information security among government entities. The role of the students working-group will be to implement a set of initiatives for a pre-determined one week every year, to educate students on the importance of this topic. Students will design and implement these initiatives, including presentations, research seminars and more.

The role of the law enforcement group will be to develop a dictionary of specialized information security Arabic terms, and this dictionary will be used by courts. Training courses for judges will be organized to cover all fundamental aspects of information security and their relation to the law.

On this topic, Eng. Mohammad Al Zarooni Director Policies and Programs Department in TRA, said: ‘We aim through such workshops to form a joint government platform that includes all informations security expertise and human resources, who work together on setting executive steps to raise public awareness on this issue. These efforts fall within our continuous follow-up on the qualitative leaps that have been accomplished by the UAE on issues of the mGovernment, and the interconnection between various government entities, where the safety and security element is the key for their success. The diversity of the working groups to cover all social segments comes as a result of the increasing prevalence of smart phones in the country, as well as the involvement of network connected devices in the details of our daily life ‘We consider the formation of working-groups as an important step in achieving the objectives of raising national awareness on the importance of information security within various task forces. We will identify the timetables for each group, and work to implement these initiatives on time. We also call all parties wishing to join this initiative to communicate with us to make the necessary arrangements.’

Furthermore, Ali Alamadi, CEO of EBDAA and EISA Committee Chairman, said: ‘The brainstorming session conducted by the committee aimed at discussing challenges faced by all members of the society in the UAE in relation to cybercrime and online threats. Creative ideas were presented to achieve the goals of the committee and many were selected as projects for 2017. With these projects, the committee's journey will start towards achieving its milestones to reach its ultimate vision of establishing a safer cyber culture in the UAE.’